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Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Eric Hoffer Quotes

“When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual- the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker- and that every device they employ aims at turning men into a manipulable animated instrument which is Aristotle's definition of a slave.”

KnowsMenMindActionPurposeIndividualAimIndependentInstrumentsSlaveWorkersDefinitionsConsumersOwnersDevicesVotersThinkerAnimatedEliminationIndependent Voters
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat.”

PeopleMenMindRunningFallInterestSocietyAffairNeighborShouldersGossipThroatMeaninglessRunning AwayOwn BusinessMeddlingSnooping
Book:The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
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“The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients.”

PeopleWayMindBelieveSeemsForceOpinionSocietyPropagandaJustifyPenetrateUnwillingInstillTrue Believer
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“The impulse to think, to philosophize and spin beauty and brilliance out of mind and soul, is somehow the offspring of resistance of an effort to overcome an apparently insurmountable obstacle. Hence cultural creativeness is more likely to flourish in an atmosphere of restriction, of an imposed pattern of thought and behavior, than in one of total freedom.”

ThinkingMindSoulEffortBehaviorOvercomingPatternsObstaclesResistanceImpulseAtmosphereRestrictionBrillianceOffspringInsurmountableCreativeness
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“In products of the human mind, simplicity marks the end of a process of refining, while complexity marks a primitive stage. Michelangelo 's definition of art as the purgation of superfluities suggests that the creative effort consists largely in the elimination of that which complicates and confuses a pattern.”

MindHumansArtEndsProcessEffortCreativeStageProductsMarkSimplicityPatternsDefinitionsComplexityHuman MindPrimitiveEliminationRefining
Author:Eric Hoffer
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“Starting out from the fact that the frustrated predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they usually join of their own accord, it is assumed: 1) that frustration of itself, without any proselytizing prompting from the outside, can generate most of the peculiar characteristics of the true believer; 2) that an effective technique of conversion consists basically in the inculcation and fixation of proclivities and responses indigenous to the frustrated mind.”

MindFactsMovementMassResponseStartingTechniqueBelieverConversionCharacteristicsFrustrationPeculiarFrustratedIndigenousAccordTrue BelieverStarting OutFixationProselytizing
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“The birth of the new constitutes a crisis, and its mastery calls for a crude and simple cast of mind -- the mind of a fighter -- in which the virtues of tribal cohesion and fierceness and infantile credulity and malleability are paramount. Thus every new beginning recapitulates in some degree man's first beginning.”

MenMindFirstsSimpleVirtueFashionBirthDegreesCrisisCastsFighterMasteryNew BeginningsNoveltyCrudeParamountCredulityCohesionInfantileFierceness
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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